This invention relates to containers provided with a wire scraper arrangement for supplying toner to electrophotographic machines or the like.
Many containers such as plastic bottles for electrophotographic toner are arranged to supply toner by gravity to electrophotographic machines and require a scraper or agitator to release toner adhering to the inner surface of the container. This is especially important in containers with inner surfaces which have corners or other locations in which toner becomes compacted and will not fall by gravity out of the container into a machine in which the container is mounted. To overcome this problem some containers have a plastic film strip or a complex wire structure arranged to scrape the inner wall of the container. These are effective when the container has a circular configuration but such structures encounter high variations in resistance when scraping walls which have a non circular configuration, resulting in large variations in torque required to drive the scraper.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,964,648, 4,423,962, 4,696,418, 5,235,389, 5,424,816 and 5,526,101 disclose various configurations of wire scrapers or agitators in toner containers having a circular internal cross-section. These wire scrapers or agitators have a complex structure and none of them is designed for use with a toner container having a non-circular cross-sectional configuration.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a toner container and wire scraper arrangement which overcomes disadvantages of the prior art.
Another object of the invention is to provide a toner container arrangement having a wire scraper arranged to scrape substantially all interior surface areas of the container in a simple and effective manner.
A further object of the invention is to provide a toner container and scraper arrangement which is capable of scraping the inner surface of a container having a non-circular section without producing substantial variations in the load applied to a drive system for the scraper.
These and other objects of the invention are attained by providing a toner container having an interior surface and an outlet opening with a central axis extending through the outlet opening and a rotatable support member adjacent to the outlet opening of the container along with a flexible wire supported on the support member and projecting in a direction away from the central axis toward the interior surface so as to scrape the interior surface when the support member is rotated. In one embodiment the toner container has a non-circular cross-sectional configuration including a plurality of interior wall surfaces with angular intersections and has a generally circular outlet opening and a rotatable support member connectable to a drive gear is supported in the outlet opening and carries a flexible wire attached at the end of an arm extending radially from the rotatable support member and projecting in a direction substantially perpendicular to the arm on which it is attached.